The ridiculous things encountered during thesis submissions

This entry was made on the afternoon of March 7, 2025.

I was unable to make the payment through my.utm.my and had to use the UTM Smart app on my phone instead. However, after completing the transaction on UTM Smart, I did not receive a receipt via email. To retrieve the receipt, I had to restart my phone and take a screenshot from the UTM Smart system, which was extremely frustrating. It is baffling why the website manager did not include a clear notice on my.utm.my instructing users to use UTM Smart directly. I had been trying to complete the payment since the morning of 4 March 2025.

Previously, I made a successful payment through my.utm.my on April 29, 2024, before my viva.

I have been reporting this issue daily since morning 4 March 2025 to the postgraduate office. And after multiple attempts, the officer finally advised me via email to contact UTM Digital (digitalcare@utm.my) for assistance on morning 7 March 2025. I only discovered that UTM Smart was required after calling a contact number provided by an officer from UTM KL, which I found in the auto-response email from UTM Digital (digitalcare@utm.my).

It was a long process. But fortunately, I am able to do my submission just in time before 3.30 pm. Despite the response email received 4.52 pm. Where the submission office close 4.30 pm.

Moral of the story, make sure to know the correct channel and people to ask to solve your internal issue. Also do ask around.

Have a good thesis submission process.